Why Does God Allow Such Capable Christians to Die So Young?

By Dr Masimba Mavaza

To all the parents who have lost their children. I have asked God so many hard questions over these last few days. As hard as Tiffany’s death for the Moyos and the church family for the most part we have been at peace with God’s will and His sovereignty.
Throughout our prayers we will be begging God not just to help us accept his will, but to agree with it. And in time, I believe God will answer that as he opens our eyes to understand his truth and conforms our hearts like His.

For us, I’ve often asked why? and more often asked what now? God in His kindness answers that question not for a lifetime or for this year, but for today. I’ve been mulling over old questions of why God allows someone so young to die. When I learned of Tiffany’s death at 17 and learned even more of her amazing testimony and ministry, like many of you I wondered — why  did God allow Tiffany Maibongwe Wilson Moyo to die so young? So capable Tiffany had a powerful testimony. She was doing great work.

She had an amazing mind and a passion to see people come to Christ. She was a young but great Pathfinder. The Pathfinder Club, or simply Pathfinders, is a department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA), which works specifically with the cultural, social and religious education of children and teens. Children 10 years and older are eligible to become members of the club.

The Pathfinders Club is a faith-based scouting group for children ages 10 to 16 which provides a wide range of activities from crafts to camping. For nearly a century, Pathfinders has served to enrich the lives of children around the world and encourage them to cultivate a lasting relationship with God. This was a club which Tiffany belonged to.

Tiffany could do so much for God. Why let her die at such a young age? Her death causes us to step back and wonder — what are you doing God? Why this one? Maybe you’ve asked that in your own life or your own grief — what are you doing, God? Why? For the many years, I’ve clung to this name for God: Faithful and True. I mean, I’ve always known that God is trustworthy but I really didn’t get it until something happened this winter.

While even our collective finite minds fall short of fully knowing the infinite purposes of God, we can know these 3 things about Tiffany’s death.
1. Death for the believer is not a tragedy.
It is loss for those who mourn. It is painful for those left – the wives and children, the mothers and fathers, siblings and friends. But it is gain for the believer.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:25-26
As believers, we have a promise from Jesus that because of him we will never die. If we’re gone from this body on earth, we are resting and waiting to be home with the Lord when he comes.
This doesn’t dismiss the pain of mourning. It is gut-wrenching and physical. But we grieve with hope. This separation isn’t forever and we live looking forward to seeing loved ones again in eternity.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven,with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God,and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

2. Death for the believer is never untimely.
She was so young, we argue. Couldn’t she be resting with the Lord when she was 90? She had so much she still could have done for the Lord.
If we believe Tiffany death was untimely – too early – we must picture God in heaven, wringing his hands because one of his children left earth without completing the work God had for her.
God is sovereign over time, his purposes and the length of our lives. Nothing happens by accident to God.
Because of that, each of us has the perfect amount of time to accomplish exactly what God has for us in our lifetime. Our day to die is never premature.
We may squander that time. We may procrastinate or never take that first step in faith to walk out that work. But if we abide in Christ, we can trust that God has measured the precise amount of time needed to accomplish the ministry he has for us. When we die it is time. What kills us is God’s time.

3. Death for the believer leaves a legacy.  
The impact of a believer never ends with her death.
“Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.” Psalm 112:6

Last month I grieved a father and my own brother who passed away at a mature age. He leaves an enormous legacy – teens discipled under him, officers supported and sent by him, scores of men taught by him, children and grandchildren following him. He has always reminded us that he was a Christian at heart.

This seems fitting for someone who had decades to sow and labor for Christ and for his family. But what about the young believer who died so young?

Have you Heard of Jim Elliot’s work with the Auca? He died at 28. And Jesus was 33.
Their lives have ended, yet their influence has flourished.
The impact of their ministry has far outlasted the length of their lives. In the paradox of God, I have no doubt that God will continue to multiply the ministry of Tiffany even in her death.

Our job is to faithfully trust. God’s job is to bring fruit. And the glory is that God does that not only in our life, but in our death.